The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-15

and formulated by man. We are, however
able TO note the importance of physical phe
nomena as favoring circumstances anc
means, if not as causes, in the history of the
moral development and progress of mankind
Such deluge as the Bible describes is both
historically and scientifically probable. In
deed, the Bible account of the food is strik-
ingly corroborated by the discoveries of mod
ern science and the facts of universal history.
According to the teachings of the modern
science of geology most of the land surface
of the earth has been inundated, and that
existent large bodies of water have been COL
lected by sudden changes of the earths sur
face. All of the existing races of man, with
the probable exception of the black or Afri-
can race, possess accounts of flood similar
to thai of our Bibles. These accounts may
all have sprung from the same source, hav-
ing been transmitted from the sons of Noah
through their respective generations.
SIN the six hundredth year of Noah's life,"
B. G. 2348, the flood came: GAIL the fount-
aims of the great deep were broken up, and
the windows of heaven were opened wi. III.
And every living thing was destroyed which
was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle, and creeping thing, and fowl of
the heaven; and Noah only was left. and they
that were with him in the ark" Such an
upheaval or depression of the earth with the
necessary shifting of bodies of water as has
since occurred in localities of the earth, may
be described by the language employed. The
universally of the food is not necessarily
implied. But a small section of the whole
earth had become inhabited. All that was
known to the survivors, including the whole
of the inhabited portion, may have been in
undated. All the high mountains under the
whole visible heaven may only have been de-
scribed as covered by the waters. Usually
the language of historical description is phe-
nomenal rather than absolute. This is es-
pecially true in Biblical and all Oriental de-
scriptions. The writer of the Biblical
account of the flood probably availed him
self of the current traditions of the event,
which among the Hebrews had been trans
mitted from Shem, their ancestor, who wit
messed it, and would naturally have describ-
ed it in the language of appearances rather
than that of absolute reality.
We are not called upon either to invent or
to explain away difficulties which are not
found in the sacred narrative. We accept
the Bible as record of the highest credibili-
ty, as truly the inspired Word of GoD, with
out encumbering our faith with theories of
inspiration. We test and interpret its state
ments by the same rules of common sense
which we apply to other historic records. In
relating external events we do not expect the
hTcf0 rTn 70 hn oh L.
and intrinsic natures just as we do not expect
even the astronomers, in using the language
of common life, to carry back the heavenly
bodies beyond the visible sky. In word,
the language of historic description is, in the
vast majority of cases, phenomenal, not alb
solute. 1t Is q true account, if it truly de-
scribes the appearances of things to specta-
tor. But for man to insist on understand
ing these appearances as absolute realities,
and that according to the narrowest literal
sense of the words used, is to impose letters
upon the sacred text, beneath which no secu-
lar historian could move single step.
1t matters not to our understanding of the
simple narrative of Scripture, whether the
waters of the deluge covered the whole globe,
provided they covered the small portion
known to Noah and peopled by the two ex-
listing races of men. We are left free to ac-
cept the plain proofs furnished by astronomy
and physical geography, that the Deluge
could no have been universal unless the laws
of all nature had been suspended. With this
error vanishes that of requiring room in the
ark for all the species of animals, or, indeed,
for any beyond those which the family of
Noah would care to preserve, chiefly for do
nestle use and sacrifice Reduced to this
form, the problem of the ark's adaptation to
its use is narrowed within a compass that
need not create alarm; and feeling no neces-
sity to work out its details. we trust more to
the definite dimensions given in an authentic
history than to the corrections of the acutest
arlthmetician.-Phiti Smith, B. A., "a His
tory of the World.''